Shot these a week ago, just gettin a few done...most are HDR. Hardcore feedback appreciated! All on my Minolta 5D and 18-200-- DT Lens

Stunning shots! What technique are you using for the HDR merge?

Nice images man, I quite like them, but the colours seem weird, almost grainy-ish.

Anyways, I'm not too taken on with this whole HDR malarkey that has came to prominence, but I like your shots.

Ya u gotta be kinda gentle when processing them, otherwise its damn ez to go overboard!

Just photomatix, slight LucisArts and PS!

Well I mean, within the program there should be different techniques for merging the images (if I remember correctly, which isn't often).

Very interesting shots. I love the way HDR shots look, I love the way these look. At the same time, something seems off. I dunno if its the sky or certain colors... they don't look quite natural.

Either way though I love them and plan on HDR experimentation myself later this year when I start shooting again. lol

All are single shot HDR

Ya know, someone else said that on another forum as well....hmmmm I am not sure how or why though, they all look ok here....hmmm you on CRT or a LCD Josh?

I am using a CRT. Might need to re-calibrate it. It could be my contrast is set completely wrong. lol

I really like the first three and the one of the shade structure (second to last). They are full of rich color and beautiful contrast - the kind that brings out all the detail in all its glory. The composition is strong in the above images, but it stands out to me in the ones I just mentioned. The dramatic weather is a welcome and captivating bonus. Heh, that window up at the top of the third image is pretty cool, too.

As far as critique goes, I'm going to have to agree with Markshannon and daskibum, though the HDR looks by-and-large fine to me. It could use some tweaking here and there, but your average viewer isn't going to notice the uneven distribution of light in some of the pictures.

What grabs my eye is either the LucisArts program or something weird you're doing in PS. To me, the images have this odd mixture of soft-focus and oversharpened effects applied (especially when I look at the foliage). There's definitely something that is causing the "grainyness" (though I put that in quotes, because it's not your standard film/noise grain) that Mark mentioned and the unnatural colors daskibum mentioned (both of which I can sorta see). Aside from the LucisArt program, it is possible that the usage of unsharp mask with a large radius (>2 or 3) can produce a similar effect to what I'm seeing here.

On the other hand, I don't see anyone else doing what you're doing. It does make your work stand out with a distinctive style. I know you said you used to be into illustration, so you know how important that is.

Beautiful work all around though, don't let my critique rub ya the wrong way.

I wish I had locations like that to shoot. To me it was the foliage that looked a little off. Has that little glowing line look things get if unsharp mask is set to high - or you use a heavy highpass overlay.

Composition is fantastic! Love that fist one. I maybe would have cloned the garbage can out of the whole view of that building. But that's just my .02.

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those are incredible shots, John, you always do such unique work ... LOVE ITTTTTT!!!!

it the HDR a format your camera does? I am unfirmiliar with it.
Boy do I miss taking photo classes where they discuss such things.

No one where I work is into photography, so I have no one to keep me going

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and is the process of stacking multiple exposures to arrive at a single image with greater dynamic range than the original exposure. By strict definition, the above photos are not HDR, as only one source file was used, but obviously the same tools can be used for interesting effects on single photos. If you want to read more, there's tons of material about it out there. Here's just two of them to get you started:

Photomatix Pro - one of the best HDR processors out there imo
Indepth Look at HDR - Decent technical overview of what exactly HDR in photography is.

Thanks so much I will definately check those out this weekend